Facebook’s Sandberg says emotion research was “poorly communicated”

Sheryl Sandberg says the problem with Facebook’s controversial emotion study is that it was “poorly communicated.”

The company’s chief operating officer apologized for that, during a stop in New Delhi on Wednesday, according to a Wall Street Journal dispatch from India. While there, Sandberg reportedly has been meeting with small-business advertisers and also speaking with groups about her “Lean In” campaign to help women advance in the workplace.

Sandberg’s remarks represent the first public statement by a company executive since online reports last weekend sparked a firestorm of debate and criticism over the study. For one week in 2012, researchers said they tested the emotional reactions of nearly 700,000 Facebook users – without their knowledge – by reducing the number of positive or negative updates from friends that appeared in their news feeds.

“This was part of ongoing research companies do to test different products, and that was what it was. It was poorly communicated,” Sandberg said, according to the Journal. “And for that communication we apologize. We never meant to upset you.”

Facebook’s position that the test was part of the company’s product research efforts is somewhat different from the way researchers first described the study in an article for a scientific journal, which said the findings could have public health implications. Legal experts say the difference could be significant, because research conducted to advance scientific knowledge, rather than to develop proprietary services or products, can trigger stricter rules aimed at safeguarding human test subjects.

Meanwhile, in an interview with India’s NDTV, Sandberg denied that the research was intended to control users’ emotions. “Facebook cannot control emotions of users. Facebook will not control emotions of users,” she reportedly said.